SOPP679: I want to tell you that I am studying this wonderful Praeludium in C from JS Bach, using your tips

​Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius...

A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene.

V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ

A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011.

V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today.

A: We hope you’ll enjoy it!

V:  Hi guys!  This is Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.

Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

Vidas: Let’s start episode 679 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Rolf, and he writes:

“Hi Vidas
Very good wishes for you both!
I want to tell you that I am studying this wonderful Praeludium in C from JS Bach, using your tips. Especially the tip cutting the piece in 4 bars and not making any mistake by playing slower, it’s working! In fact it goes faster and it’s giving me a lot of pleasure, thank you very much!!
I will support your beautiful work of course.
Greetings from Groningen
Rolf”

Vidas: Do you remember our fan Rolf?

Ausra: Yes! I think he is a subscriber of my YouTube channel, and he comments on my videos.

Vidas: Yes. A regular commenter, and we appreciate his engagement very much, and he is supporting us through “Buy Me a Coffee,” too.

Ausra: Very nice indeed.

Vidas: Wonderful! So let’s congratulate him a little bit more!

Ausra: Yes, I think it’s wonderful that he found your suggestion useful, how to work on the larger pieces, how to divide them in the smaller segments and that way to learn faster.

Vidas: Do you like playing a piece in four-measure segments, or not?

Ausra: Yes, I do! Because usually this is how most of the compositions divide.

Vidas: In four-measure segments.

Ausra: Yes. With some exceptions, of course, but generally that is the case.

Vidas: True! If every piece would be possible to dissect into four-measure fragments, that would be very boring. But, inside of any piece, you could find four-measure fragments easily, I think.

Ausra: Yes, true!

Vidas: So in other words, composers use more ingenuity than just 4-4-4-4-4, but the four-measure fragment is a building block of any piece from any period, basically. That’s what I wanted to say.

Ausra: Yes, that’s right!

Vidas: Agree?

Ausra: Yes, I agree.

Vidas: Right now, I am actually working also on some pieces for Easter, based on Easter Hymn, and I am creating a recurring motif between chorale phrases. We call it “ritornello” and yes, it is divided into four phrases of four measures each, this general ritornello, but of course, I have to use a little bit more creativity to make it more interesting and not to repeat everything note by note throughout the piece.

Ausra: That’s right! Of course you cannot repeat exactly the same things.

Vidas: Yes, but those measures that aren’t divided into four-measure phrases, you could really dissect and learn them that way.

Ausra: Yes! Actually, the only one thing that I’m thinking might be hard after learning a piece by four bars is how to put everything together afterwards, and how to connect those four-bar-long segments into one big structure.

Vidas: Yeah. In observing other people’s playing sometimes, I can see that they’re working in smaller fragments like this, but then when it comes to make the piece flow, they’re struggling. Why do you think they are doing this?

Ausra: Well, I think the main thing to keep in mind if you are practicing in four-measure segments, you need not to stop at the end of the last note of the fourth bar, but on the strong beat of the fifth bar.

Vidas: In other words, not to end the fragment on the last note of the fragment, but to end the fragment on the first note of the next fragment. Yes?

Ausra: Yes, that’s what I mean. That might help you to put the piece easier together and it will be played smoother.

Vidas: And then gradually you would expand those fragments, practicing not four measures at a time but eight, or even sixteen, or… I mean, not necessarily mathematically like this, but maybe one line, two lines, one page, two pages… like this.

Ausra: Yes, true.

Vidas: Make it longer. Most people don’t practice small fragments, so they’re not making that kind of progress like Rolf is doing.

Ausra: Well, yes, because most people just play every time from the beginning, every piece, and I think that’s a big mistake, because that way the beginning will always be easier for you than the end of the piece or the middle of the piece, because I notice that it’s very often the case with the Lutheran Chorales with that Gesang structure when you have A section, then A section repeated, then you have the B section which is a little bit longer than the A section and usually more difficult. And I notice because that A section is always repeated, you know it so well, but you struggle with the B section. So what I do, if I’m not learning in the segments of four measures, I play that A section once, and then I play the B section also once. And if I repeat the A section, I repeat the B section although it’s not written in the score.

Vidas: So that you would be able to repeat both halves an equal amount of times.

Ausra: That’s right.

Vidas: That’s good! That’s good!

Ausra: Again, if you have the piece which is written in ABA form, then of course I do the same with the middle section. It needs more work then.

Vidas: And this ternary structure is very common, too!

Ausra: Sure! Of course. It’s probably more common in general music, I think, we as organists deal more with the binary structure, but I think in general the classical musician deals more with the ternary form.

Vidas: True. Alright, we hope this was useful to you. This was Vidas,

Ausra: and Ausra!

Vidas: Please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice,

Ausra: Miracles happen!

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